Nascar Driver Wins Les Paul Worth Thousands, Smashes It On Camera

When Nascar driver Kyle Busch was awarded a unique Gibson Les Paul, painted by famed Nascar artist Sam Bass, as a reward for victory at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway last weekend there was only one thing he could do.

Smash it up immediately.

*Warning: this level of stupidity could bring a tear to the eye.*

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qj0c1bFyck

As Nashville is the home of Gibson it's long been tradition for the company award winners of the Nascar Cup Series there a Bass-painted Les Paul. Busch was reportedly so frustrated with past failures there that he'd long planned to smash his prize if he ever won it. Unfortunately for him, the mahogany guitar seemed to stand up surprisingly well to such a hammering – but at least Busch got to do it all in front of the artist who customised the guitar. Nice – we suppose that’s what driving around in a circle all day does to you.

Artist Bass seemed to take the vandalism pretty well though, telling the Nashville Scene website:

"It was stunning, absolutely stunning to see that thing destroyed within seconds of him getting it. It’s his trophy, he can choose to do with it what he wants. But I'm not going to lie about it. If he had asked me, Hey, I'm thinking about destroying that trophy guitar whenever I win it, what do you think? Of course I would have told him, No! Please don't. Let us give you a prop guitar."

The driver is making amends though. Busch told a TNT television broadcast team that he has agreed to purchase two more copies of the Sam Bass Gibson Les Paul trophy – one for himself and one for his pit crew chief Jason Ratcliff. He explained that he wanted to award all of the team members a piece of the guitar that he smashed on Saturday night. And, because he hadn’t done the job properly on the night, he would be sawing the guitar into pieces on Monday.